THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011
VOL. 89 | NO. 49 | $3.75
SADDLING UP TO SAVE HORSES | P70
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EDUCATION | AGRICULTURE
INVESTMENTS | GRAIN TERMINALS
Ag + education = confusion Students study Food Inc. | Documentary presents misconceptions about farming, say teachers BY ROBERT ARNASON BRANDON BUREAU
WINNIPEG — “Have you ever seen Food Inc.?” Considering it’s 8:30 a.m. at Westwood Collegiate in Winnipeg, the students in the home economics classroom are reasonably alert and responsive when asked if they’ve watched the 2009 documentary film. Most of the students in the Grade 12 foods class, a mix of boys and girls, raise their hand to say they’ve seen Food Inc., which condemned food production practices in North America as inhumane and unsustainable. The students’ response isn’t shocking, seeing how Food Inc. was nominated for an Academy Award as best documentary in
ARE WIREWORMS HEADING TO YOUR FIELDS? | P36-37
2009. Yet, it is surprising that almost every student viewed the film in class at Westwood Collegiate. One student in the foods class stopped eating meat about a year ago, around the same time she watched the documentary. Food Inc. argued that factory farms and food companies have hijacked modern agriculture and painted a revealing but ugly portrait of food production in America. Johanne Ross, Agriculture in the Classroom executive director for Manitoba, is aware that Manitoba teachers are showing Food Inc. because she’s had to deal with the fallout, such as students who became vegetarians after watching the movie. “There are a lot of good things
about that movie,” Ross said. “There’s a lot of truth in that movie, but there are misconceptions in the movie.” It’s hard to know where and when Manitoba students are watching the movie, but thousands of teens have likely seen it in Grade 10 geography, because food from the land is a required teaching unit in the course. “Teachers have to teach that (unit) and they have a curriculum outlined for them,” Ross said. “But of course, they want to augment that (material) and that’s where Food Inc. comes in. To bring Food Inc. into the classroom has certainly caused some misrepresentations (about agriculture) in that age group.”
John Stairs, who teaches Grade 1 0 g e o g ra p hy a t We s t w o o d , defended the film as a useful teaching tool. For instance, he said, one segment talks about chickens and how the chicken breast is now four times larger than it was in the past because of feeding practices and genetics. “That’s good information for the kids…. Food Inc. is a very good video in that it shows how big the agri-industry has become…. It also you gives you an idea of what farmers are up against,” said Stairs, sitting at a table inside the home economics room at Westwood, surrounded by sewing machines, kitchen sinks and stoves. SEE AG + EDUCATION, PAGE 2
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‘Are you for sale?’ Grain companies look to buy Canadian terminals BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Foreign grain companies are keenly interested in Western Canada’s independently owned inland grain terminals, says a spokesperson for one international firm. Gary Williams, senior market manager for Scoular Canada Ltd., is familiar with one farmer-owned facility that has been approached by at least 20 grain company representatives wanting to buy or establish a relationship with the elevator. “I don’t know that those are all major, mega grain firms but I would imagine that probably nine out of 10 of the major grain firms came to the door,” he said. Scoular is one of them. The company is the 63rd largest privately owned business in the United States, with $5 billion in sales and 60 elevators. access=subscriber section=news,none,none
SEE GRAIN COMPANIES, PAGE 3
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SPECIAL REPORT
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To assess what teenagers know and think about modern agriculture, Western Producer reporters Robert Arnason and Barb Glen prepared and gave a questionnaire to high school students in Winnipeg and rural Alberta. The results of the survey, the students’ comments and the reporters’ special report on agriculture and the classroom, starts on PAGE 30.
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